The invention is directed to chip resistant coatings, more particularly to such coatings having utility in automotive applications.
Stones, gravel, etc. which occasionally hit the protective, exterior coating on an automotive vehicle, can chip and damage the coating resulting in appearance defects as well as a decrease in protection provided by the coating against corrosion, etc. The problem has been of ongoing concern within the automobile manufacturing industry for a considerable period of time.
The present invention is directed to a coating composition, and a process of coating, for forming a first, relatively thick layer of liquid coating composition on a substrate followed by application of a second, different coating composition thereover and hardening and/or curing the compositions of the resulting, composite film together. For greater efficiency, it is desirable that the respective second coating composition be applied to the underlying first coating composition essentially "wet on wet" (i.e., essentially without pre-curing or pre-hardening the underlying coating composition). Also, it is desirable that the underlying first coating composition and the overlying second coating composition be hardened and/or cured together at elevated temperature without generating appearance and integrity defects in the resulting, hardened composite film. These and other objects will become apparent to the reader infra.